


a happy fool I would rather be

by cinderlily



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Miscommunication, Schmoop, angsty, fake boyfriend who doesn't live in Canada
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9325685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: Max and Duke dated but broke up, rationally and with little fanfare. It was totally awesome.And then Duke starts dating a French speaking Disney Prince and Max is totally okay with it.No. Really. He is.





	

The simplest answer was to break up. 

Duke had been the one to say it, but Max had been thinking something along the same lines. It was strange how it felt simple and easy, they’d only been dating for a few weeks before Orion became a factor and the whole ‘Duke can’t handle being in the same room as the life-saving dog’ thing was a big hinderance. 

So they broke up. 

Which, in the long run, just meant they hung out the same amount and spent their free time together (generally at Duke’s), ate dinner together a lot of the time, but didn’t kiss or screw around. It was like before. 

Only… not. 

Max thought it was cool how they’d gone from friends to lovers to friends. It was grown-up and mature and he was rather proud of it. He even told a kind of round about version of the story to Chych when he moved in. He avoided the whole fact that it was _Duke_ and used the name Anna, cause well. That was something private. 

Then Duke got a boyfriend. 

He was apparently nice. He was apparently _awesome_. He was a freaking _French_ teacher, who Duke had met at a bar one night when Max was at home with his stupid hand. His name was Noah and Max really really tried to like him but the fact that he couldn’t find anything to hate about him made him hate him even before he met him. 

It took a few weeks for him to get to meet him, between him being on IR and Duke being all about going to Noah’s after games… But he heard about him. Duke at least had the courtesy to _call_ him if he didn’t see him nearly as much. 

“Max, today we talked for two hours in Quebecois, apparently his dad lived in Quebec for a few years and taught him the bigger differences. It was amazing. I mean, I was talking fast at first but I slowed down and he just _got it_.” 

Yeah, Max hated the dick. 

When he did finally meet him at a get together at Duke’s, Max thought he was going to scream. The guy was like 6 foot 4, dark black hair and light green eyes and a kind smile. He didn’t know much about hockey but he tried to talk to Max about it. Max wasn’t having it. He talked to him about his injury. Max kept it to the bare minimum. 

Duke pulled him aside. “Dude, Noah thinks you hate him. Why are you making him think you hate him?” 

“I don’t hate him,” he lied outright. “I just… don’t like him.” 

“What don’t you like about him? He’s awesome and he makes me happy.” 

Max had no response to that that wasn’t childish or stupid so he just shrugged. “I’m… sorry. If he thinks I hate him. I’ll try harder.” 

“Good,” Duke smiled. “Now come on, I left him alone with Murphs and Tobi and he looks like they are grilling him. They don’t even know we’re dating… Freaks.” 

Max followed Duke like Orion followed him when he was in trouble, directly at his heels and his head focused on the floor. Max wasn’t in the mood to talk to Tobi, Murphs, and he sure as HELL wasn’t in the mood to talk to Noah. But he smiled and made pleasantries and tried his best not to yell when Noah and Duke made stupid inside jokes in French and laughed. 

He could speak French. If he tried. 

After an hour he claimed exhaustion and hand pain and half forced Chych to take him home. Chych gave him a weird look but shrugged and told Lawson to just come over later to play Xbox. 

The truth was he _was tired_ and his hand was kind of bothering him. But mostly he just needed out of that house. 

“Noah was nice,” Chychrun said, halfway home after the thick silence in the car seemed to get too much. 

“Yeah. He was awesome,” Max deadpanned, looking out the window. 

Not getting social cues, Chychrun went on. “It’s cool to have a friend who _isn’t_ in hockey. I mean, when I go home I see my friends but during the year it’s like hockey 24/7. It was like, refreshing.” 

“Yeah, if you want to be friends with a Disney Prince. Where the hell were his squirrel and birds were to help get dressed?” 

Chych laughed but quickly stopped. “Wait, do you … not like him?” 

Max rubbed his good hand on his jeans, it felt clammy and gross. His bad hand did too, but he couldn’t take his guard off in the car. “I don’t _hate_ him.” 

“You kind of sound like you hate him, dude.” 

“What do we even KNOW about him? He like popped into Duke’s life overnight. It’s only been three weeks. He could be a freaking Gold Digger for all we know.” 

Chych gave a long pause. “Gold Diggers are people you date. Duke isn’t _dating_ Noah.” 

**Balls**.

“I meant like a clinger on. You know? Fame seeker.” 

They pulled into their driveway and Chych didn’t hit the garage button. “Max.” 

“What?” he said, looking once at Chych and then back at his jeans. 

“Anna wouldn’t be _Anthony_ , would it?” 

Max felt a panic rise in the back of his throat, felt like his skin was suddenly way too hot for his body. 

“Cause, I would be okay with that. But like. Tell me?” 

The thing was, he could easily brush it off. Hell, even if Chych didn’t believe him he’d most likely give him the benefit of the doubt and let him live in that lie for a little bit longer. But _not_ telling him felt a whole lot shittier than just skirting around the issue. Chych was his friend, outright lying at a question about it made it feel dirty and really? Fuck that. 

“You can’t… tell anyone about it,” he blurted out. 

“And Duke _is_ dating Noah?” 

Max frowned. “Apparently.” 

“Well fuck.” 

That pretty well summed it up. 

Chych hit the garage button and let the idling car go back into gear. They were in the house for barely thirty seconds, long enough for Orion to attack Max and happily wag his tail at whatever his breath smelled like to the dog and for Chych to grab both of them a glass of water, before Chych followed him into the living room and continued like Max hadn’t thought the conversation was over. 

“What are you going to do?” 

“About?” 

Chych paused and fiddled with his glass. His voice lowered. “ _Anna_?” 

“You don’t have to use it like a code,” Max said, almost laughing. “No one is here to tell. Orion is pretty good at keeping secrets.” 

“Okay,” Chych sighed. “What are you going to do about Duke?” 

Max frowned and shrugged. “Ignore it and act like everything is okay.”

“WHAT?” 

“What?” Max put his hands up. “What the hell else are you expecting from me? Do some grand gesture? It’s been almost a _year_ , Jake. He’s still allergic to dogs. I’m not getting rid of Orion. Nothing’s changed. He’s obviously moved the hell on.” 

There wasn’t much left to be said, and in the long run all he was doing was making the problem bigger and bigger in his mind. And it already feels pretty epic in his brain. So he brushed the base of his buzzed hair. 

“Look. It sucks. This sucks hard. But I’m… done with that. So. If you’ll excuse me, I have a date with some pain killers and my bed,” Max said as he pushed himself up off the chair he’d sat on. He looked at Chych and swallowed. “Just… keep this between us.” 

Chych, who looked like he was _not_ done talking about it, nodded. “Of course, man. Buddies.” 

“Buddies,” Max said, and gave a honest smile for once. The kid was only three years his junior, and looked older than Murphs, but he was pretty freaking awesome. 

He took his meds and downed the last of his water. He checked his phone, mostly for the scores around the league, but caught that Duke had sent him a text message. 

“ _dude, what the fuck?_ ” ‘

Succinct. 

Typing one handed wasn’t fun so he kept his message brief. “ _bad night. tell noah sorry._ ” 

He put his phone on Do Not Disturb, which was something he never did but it felt like it would be bad to even attempt a conversation. The meds would probably not help. 

He’d been marathoning Narcos on Netflix, not for the first time, and started it up again. He made it through about half an episode before he fell asleep. 

* 

The next morning he got up and went through his normal routine. He was slowly being allowed to actually do things and there had been talk about letting his back on the ice, which would be a heaven sent. He hated being off the ice. Even though he rationally got it wasn’t his last time, he always feared it. He knew every guy did, but growing up sick gave him a different perspective. Everything had a seemingly bright red expiration date on it, one he always felt like he could never quite make out. 

There was this unspoken agreement between Chych and himself, as he got to the kitchen to find Chych making himself breakfast and Chych just gave a nod and continued on with no words. Max checked his numbers and grabbed his mango-banana smoothie he kept in the freezer. It was easy and simple and mindless, like himself in the morning. 

He was halfway through his shake when Chych placed some scrambled eggs in front of him. Max blinked at it and Chych shrugged. 

“Protein.” 

“Thanks,” he said. 

Chych shrugged and sat across the table, shoveling food in his mouth. “Whatever. You coming in this morning?” 

“Why else would I be up?” 

“Point,” Chych nodded. “So … uh. I have an idea.” 

Max took a bite of the eggs. “Funny I didn’t smell the smoke.” 

“Ha ha ha,” Chych pointedly faked a laugh. “I was being serious. I mean, last night I was thinking, like what you needed to do. And I think you need to get a boyfriend.” 

Being mid bite of food was a bad idea. Trying to take a drink of a shake to wash it down was even worse. It took him a full minute to get himself to breathing regularly enough to say, “What?” 

“Like,” Chych said, his face a little red, “Not necessarily a _real_ boyfriend. Just a stand in. Maybe made up. Either way. I think it’ll help see if you are on the same page as Duke or not.” 

Max put his fork down and looked at Chych. “You mean, you want me to have a boyfriend who lives in Canada?” 

“ _No_ ,” Chych frowned. “I mean. Like we just make up a dude. We don’t call him your boyfriend directly. But like. We talk about him. A lot. The two of us make him up and like how awesome he is.” 

 

“Jake, I get that you’re just out of high school but rom coms are not how life work,” Max said, probably a hair more bitter than he really required. 

Chych had a full on bright red. “Dude, the thing is you’d have a conspirator. Like. I’d be there. I’d be there to agree with you… We might have to get Laws in on it. He’s over enough that it would really work.” 

“We are NOT TELLING Crouse,” Max said. “Are you kidding me? Let me just let it go, okay?” 

“Come on, Max…” he started but Max glared at him and he stopped before muttering. “I think it might work.” 

Max looked down at his injured hand and flipped it back and forth. When had his life gotten to this point? It was normal at one point. He was about ninety percent sure that he had a normal life at some point. Somehow it'd slipped into made for TV movie mode. 

*

After morning skate, which had included fifteen minutes with him allowed on the ice in the ugly no hit jersey but _on the ice_ , and after a lunch that had included Duke talking about Noah for no less than the entire time… Max’s mind had changed. Maybe his brain broke, he wasn’t sure. But the idea that had seemed so out of bounds and crazy that morning felt less and less like a bad one when it came to him and Chych driving home. 

So he did something crazy. 

“Let’s say I was on board with your idea.” 

Chych, from the driver’s seat, all but took his hands off the wheel in pure glee. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I swear to fuck, Jakob, this goes sideways I’m telling your mom you had weed in my house and I’m concerned about bad influences,” Max said, his good fingers twitching on his lap. 

“Dude, not buddies,” Chych said. “I’m trying to help you out… I’ll calls Laws. I mean, he’ll have to be in on it. He’s over all the time.” 

The smarter part of his brain was sure this was the worst idea he’d had since that night in Toronto over last break. But that had ended with him, a hangover and a girl who still texted him every once in awhile even though he’d only ended up to talking to her for a few hours. Or possibly all night, it was a haze. Either way, the rest of his brain was just desperate enough to take this as a good idea. 

* 

Lawson looked at him like for a painfully long amount of time when he explained what was going on. Well, his half of it. He was going to let Chych give up the actual dumb part of it because he had at least a semblance of personal pride. Or so he liked to think. 

“You … and… Duke?” Lawson said, finally, his voice so slow he might’ve been starting three different sentences. Max just nodded slowly. Lawson looked at Chych. “Jake?” 

Chych rolled his eyes. “Catch up, Laws. We have a plan.” 

“YOU have a plan,” Max pointed out. “You are all about the plan. I am a part of the plan. A semi-willing participant.” 

“So, we are going to make up a guy,” Chych ignored him, and fuck it sounded dumber and dumber out loud. 

Lawson made a face. “Seriously Chych?” 

“Why is no one appreciating this?” Chych sounded genuinely offended. “Come on. With Noah in the picture Duke is all ‘busy’… sorry Max… So it’s the three of us. It would be easy to slide a fourth person into the mix and not make it weird. Two people backing it up. It’ll be easy.” 

Max wiped at his face. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.” 

“What if he wants photographic proof?” Lawson said, and Max’s head snapped up. 

Yeah. 

“Yeah, what if he wants a photo of the group or some shit?” Max said. 

Chych smiled widely, clicking on his phone. “I had that idea. Here we go. Remember when I had my friend Blake come visit a few months back? Duke wasn’t able to meet him. He was only here for like three days and he was sick. We didn’t post the pics because Blake doesn’t like social media. We have a half a dozen pictures of the four of us. Separate days with different shirts.” 

“Blake…” Max said. “The one who vomited in our guest room?” 

He flicked through the pictures idly. The pictures did seem to fit a narrative. The guy had been handsy as fuck. He was handsome enough, if a little too much like Chych for his taste. Too ‘Abercrombie and Fitch’, but whatever. He liked Chych. 

“Whatever, he’s a freshman in college. He likes to drink. We weren’t _best_ bros or anything. He needed somewhere to crash before he went back home.” 

“Because he left U of A after a month,” Max muttered, but he was being petty at this point. He stopped on a picture of the two of them. He did NOT remember this photo being shot. Blake was leaning into his left ear to tell him something and Max was smiling. 

“Like it? It was kind of a background to a selfie of me and Laws but I cropped it,” Chych said proudly. “Convincing, right?” 

Lawson, who had apparently looked over his shoulder, clucked his tongue. “Dude, I’d buy it.” 

“I am not saying I’m dating your bro from back home,” Max said. 

“Well, no…” Chych frowned. “We’re just using him as a stand in. I mean, no one met him. He lives in FLORIDA. We just make up a story about him. Like. His name is Luke.” 

Lawson smacked Chych on the shoulder. “LUKE vs DUKE. Lame, bro.” 

“You come up with something better.” 

Lawson paused and said. “Christopher Jefferson. Goes by CJ.” 

“Where the hell did you get that?” Chych tilted his head. 

“My brain?” 

Chych smiled. “You beaut.” 

“Okay _kids_ ,” Max frowned. “Awesome. We have a name and a picture. Now what?” 

They spent the better part of two hours (with lunch mixed in) constructing a fairly believable lie, which when Max looked at it on paper was completely insane. He was looking at a life that he was supposedly having and finding that he was jealous of _himself_. 

Chych was convinced that the game was that they would have to be pretty subtle about most things. They met him at a show, a while back, apparently good old CJ was a roadie/background musician. This would explain how he wouldn’t be able to go out with the guys much if at all. 

He also worked at Starbucks part time to make ends meet, which was thrown in because they had a picture of the four of them at a Starbucks and Blake…er CJ was wearing a green polo. He was a busy guy, that was the key. But he was sweet and kind and would always come to visit the guys all the time. 

They couldn’t _outright_ say that he was Max’s boyfriend, as that would a) give away the game and b) put Max out in the entire locker room, something he wasn’t interested in. But they had all these small scheduled breaks where they would have seen him. 

They changed Max’s background to the picture but not the lock screen (that was Lawson’s idea, kid had some smarts). Max was supposed to smile whenever he heard the name, sometimes look down. He knew _that_ wouldn’t be that hard as he knew he was going to feel embarrassed as fuck when it came up. 

Lawson and Chych would do the bulk of bringing him up, thankfully. It was like Ocean’s Eleven level of piled on bullshit. He was almost impressed with them, if he wasn’t also just a bit more scared of their level of enjoyment and ability in this arena. 

“We watch a lot of heist movies,” Lawson told him. Which was a shock to Max, he had completely different ideas of what they did in Chych’s room. But maybe he was biased. 

When they were done it was late enough for them to all crash out for pre-game naps. Lawson could fall asleep on a dime, so it wasn’t even that rare to see him just close his eyes on the couch. Max decided to take the other side of the couch, as Chych was the kind who needed silence and darkness to sleep. 

Max was surprised how easily he crashed out.

*

Max woke up to find that Lawson and assumedly Chych were still out like lights. He laughed. They still had a bit of time before he _had_ to wake them up. Generally he might flop over and go back to sleep till he had to be awake but the thing was that he’d dreamt of Duke and that wasn’t something he wanted to slip back into. Or, more accurately, it was something he _did_ and he knew that he shouldn’t. 

Orion was at his feet, curled up in a sunny spot. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time with him lately. He had a dog walker, a girl named Amy who spoiled the dog rotten, but he still felt guilty. So he leaned over his bed and looked at his pup. 

“‘Rion, ball?” 

Orion’s eyes opened and looked up at him, tongue falling out of his mouth. 

“Let’s go.” 

Even with Orion’s heavy nails on the carpet and the fact that he batted at Lawson twice with his tail, Lawson stayed asleep. Max crept past and went to the backdoor, opening it gently before they walked out. It was one of those afternoons that a true Phoenician would call cold, but he found to be perfect. 

Thankfully he had a ball thrower that only required one arm and could get the ball pretty much across his backyard. Orion loved it. He was a great service dog, the best trained, but Max liked the fact that he was also just a dog sometimes. A crazy wacky dog who liked to sniff out the ball and be pet afterward like he solved world hunger. 

He bent down after a few times, to give him a good scratch behind his ears and a whiff of his breath at the same time. He probably needed a snack but Orion didn’t freak out so he felt at least eased. 

“This is a really stupid idea, Orion,” he confided. “Duke won’t care and this is going to blow up in my damn face.” 

Orion’s face went still, like he was really listening, then he paused and licked Max’s face repeatedly. Yeah, all puppy. 

“You’ll still love me,” Max said. “That’s good to know. Now, FETCH.” 

He threw the ball as far as he could and Orion lept off the small porch towards it. 

The backdoor opened and a frumpled looking Chych walked out. “We need to get suited up. Dinner will be soon.” 

Max nodded, not really caring but knowing he had to pretend to. He hated sitting in the team box more than anything but whatever. He had to go. So called Orion in, who came happily, having found the ball. 

Lawson, apparently always prepared with a suit in his car, Chych and he all got dressed. Chych in his bathroom, Lawson in the guest and Max in his master bath. He couldn’t do his tie, embarrassingly, and tying his shoes made him feel like a four year old just learning. He did his best though, focused on his face. His facial hair was bordering on not okay, he had to go to a barber. He put on his favorite cologne, one he hadn’t worn in a while because Duke had gotten it for him. But if he was going in, he might as well go all in. 

Chych knocked on his door and they both silently went through the ritual of him finishing the top buttons and doing the tie. He was lucky when he got his first rookie. Even if he’d gotten his first rookie while he still felt like he was a rookie. 

“You good?” Chych asked towards the end. 

“Ask me again later on,” he offered. 

Chych patted his face. “Come on, you are going to be golden. Total beaut. Lawson agrees, don’t you Laws?” 

From just outside the door he heard a sheepish. “Uh, yeah.” 

“Let’s go, I hear it might be enchilada night,” Chych smiled. 

* 

It was, which made Chych and Lawson act like 12 year olds. They still hadn’t gotten the whole ‘they can make food for themselves’ thing. It was a constant source of amusement when Max actually gave a crap and _made_ them food. Not that he was the best, but he’d learned enough. 

His plate was a mixture of an enchilada, extra chicken and veggies on the side. He took a few bites and had to admit that the enchilada was good. He hummed happily. 

“Hey, didn’t you say Ceej was coming tonight?” Chych said, out of nowhere. Max, mid-bite looked up and made a face before he saw that Duke had sat down across from him. “I’ve been thinking we could get him drunk after…” 

Max swallowed and took a sip of water. They’d talked about this. “Naw, he worked late last night. He’s probably already out.” 

“Laaaaame,” Lawson called from Chych’s other side. “Isn’t he supposed to be like rockstar? ‘Sleep when I’m dead’?” 

“Technician,” he coughed. “He’s a technician.” 

From beside him Jordan nudged his elbow. “Who we talking about?” 

“CJ,” Lawson said, while Chych helpfully added. “ _Shaft_.” 

Max rolled his eyes, at least he didn’t have to _pretend_ to be annoyed at Chych and Lawson. “Guys, he has a job. CJ is just a … friend. We met at a bar a few weeks ago.” 

Jordan shrugged. “Ah, cool.” 

“Wait, what?” Max jerked his head towards Duke who looked thoroughly confused. “You met a guy at a bar. When?” 

“A few weeks ago?” Max repeated, his voice going weird when he saw Duke looking something like hurt. He took a bite of his chicken to ignore the urge to take it all back. 

Chych picked up the ball. “Yeah, you were busy and Laws heard about this band playing. CJ was teching but he stood in for the drummer for a bit. He likes to play, you know? How have you guys not heard about CJ? He’s awesome!” 

“Probably because he’s half vampire,” Lawson smiled. “Just ask Max. I come over and they’re hanging out in the morning.” 

Max _choked_ on some of his vegetables. He swallowed a half a glass of water. “He works late, doesn’t finish till like 5. He sometimes just comes over to walk Orion with me or to work out.” 

“Since when are you EVER awake at 5 in the morning?” Duke asked, annoyed. 

“I get up at six,” Max frowned. Total lie. Unless he _had_ to, his body was not much for anything before eight in the morning.

Duke looked down at his food and took a few bites, Jordan went on to ask a few questions with Chych and Lawson answering for him. Chych, after a while, nudged him under the table and gave him a dorky smile. He looked up to see that Duke was still staring at his food, but not eating it, instead he seemed like he was trying to reheat it with his eyes alone. 

Max felt less like a success and more like a jerk. He finished his dinner faster than normal and got up to go. Duke glanced up at him once and Max turned around. He wasn’t in the mood to look at Duke at that moment. He placed his plate in the grey box near the trash can and straightened his tie.

He didn’t have warm ups, so he walked to the trainers’ room to talk to them about timelines and such. He figured if he went in every day it might wear them down. Hopefully. He wanted back on the ice. That was his immediate goal. The fact that it meant he would be far away from Duke was just an added bonus. 

*

After he got settled in the team box he was, well, surprised to put it mildly, to get a text message from Duke that simply read, “ _CJ_?” 

“ **Noah?** ”

“ _I introduced you to him!_ ”

“ **I haven’t had a chance. We see each other only a few hours. He works a lot.** ” 

“ _Shane is going to take my phone, but what the fuck man?_ ” 

He made a face at his phone. He was told _he_ was acting weird the other night. At least he didn’t attack the hell out of Duke. And Duke didn’t have any room to talk. The jerk. 

*

They were playing the Sharks, which inevitably meant it was a little chippy. No one would mention the whole Mikkel thing but it was always _there_. This time, however, Duke was apparently in it to _kill it_. He put his body out and attacked. It was weird to see Ollie reeling him back in repeatedly. He got put in the box twice and then by the third period he seemingly was out of the game entirely, only playing one or two short shifts. 

During the break between second and third he got a text from Chych with two thumbs up. He was going to go on a tirade on the phone with him but his hand was tired and he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make any sense at all. Mostly he just wanted to tell Chych to lay off and that they were going to let go of the whole CJ thing. 

He didn’t. 

They won, which was nice, he went down to the locker room to congratulate the team. It was the usual scrum, but he was mostly saved from it. A younger reporter asked if he was willing to talk about his hand and he just shrugged her off, telling her there was not much to tell yet. Which was mostly true. 

Jordan asked if he wanted to go out and celebrate with them, but he wasn’t in the mood to do so. When he said as much, Jordan shrugged him off. 

“Well, stop waking up early with your bro and maybe you’ll be able to stay up later than me.” 

Max flicked him off, thankful when he was pretty sure no cameras saw him. He walked over to where Chych, Lawson, Murphs and Ollie were all talking back and forth as they finished getting dressed. 

“What was the deal with your boy tonight?” Ollie asked, as soon as he caught sight of Max. “I had to bodily hold him off the Sharks. You put drugs in his dinner?” 

Chych had a hand over his mouth, faking a cough but Lawson picked it up. “Yeah, Hulk angry, Max. What WAS with _your_ boy?” 

“I guess you’ll have to ask Duke?” Max said. 

“He’s getting a talking to by the Cap,” Murphs said, rolling his eyes. Tippet would usually give a talk if it was game play, but Shane liked to keep up on personal lives. It was a little bit of a joke between them. _Captain Dad_. 

Max frowned and fidgeted with the cuff of his jacket. “Chych, you going out?” 

“Naw, Laws and I figured we’d come back and play Xbox,” Chych said. “Not drinking is a bummer.” 

He would tease him, generally, but he’d been there less than a year ago, so he let it go. He was thankful as fuck he didn’t have to Uber it home or find someone else. He sat down on the edge of the bench and let the guys get back to getting dressed. His hand was bugging him, so he looked curiously at the bandaging, trying to see if he’d pulled something loose. It seemed fine but he went into his pocket and grabbed a half a pill. 

“You okay?” An opened bottle of water was pushed at him. It was Duke, Max looked up at him in genuine shock. “Uh. Yes? I just. Hand?” 

Duke nodded, he looked annoyed and tired and Max wanted to say something comforting beyond, _“I’m sorry, I lied. You won. I’m lonely.”_

“Wanna come over and watch the kids be idiots?” 

“STOP CALLING US THE KIDS,” Lawson butted in. “I’m two years younger than you, fucker. You’re like barely older than me. Now Baby Chych...” 

While Chych and Lawson smacked at each other Duke considered it. “Just the three of you?” 

Max raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?” 

“Okay.” 

Duke went to his locker, a few rows down and Chych, who had Lawson in the middle of a headlock paused to wink at him. He rolled his eyes. 

“Hurry up, I want to get home before tomorrow’s practice starts.” 

“Already ready, _Doaner_ ,” Chych teased. But he was, miraculously, ready. Lawson was putting on his coat. He was going to have to tell the two of them to cut out the looks and smiles because it was pretty obvious and while Duke could be dense, he wasn’t going to overlook it forever. 

The three of them headed towards the door. Stopping by Duke’s locker for Max to tell him to meet them at his house. Like it was a question where’d they’d meet. 

Duke nodded as he frowned down at his phone. “See you there.” 

*

By the time Duke got there, Max’s hand was feeling better and he was feeling just on the good side of buzzed. He really only took the meds when he needed it, hated the way they made him feel if he took the recommended dose and was all too aware as to what they could do to a player. But when he worked hard enough he was aware that it was necessary. 

Plus, _Duke_. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen him all that much, he had been at the rink and all that. It was just that when you went from seeing a guy almost every single day for pretty much the entire day to three weeks of basically hit or miss… well. It made you miss him. Like. A lot. 

Thankfully, Lawson and Chych were pretty distracted by the Xbox and Max’s ridiculous 72’ 4KHD TV. It left the possibility of them trying to ‘enforce the plan’ at a minimum. He offered Duke a beer and Duke took him up on the offer. He’d grabbed some decent beer from a stupidly expensive alcohol shop. He wasn’t crazy about American crap, but he’d put up with it for the time BEFORE he’d hit 21, so he splurged now that he could. 

Not that _he_ could drink with the pain killers. Boo. So he had a bottle of water. It wasn’t quite the same but whatever. Duke seemed happy enough with the beer. Orion came in and as soon as he saw Duke excited ran over to him. 

Allergies or not, that dog had imprinted on Duke almost as quick as he had on Max. It was sad enough that Duke always left his house with a stuffy nose, worse that Orion always acted like Max had taken away his favorite thing on earth. He knew the feeling. 

“How does CJ get along with Orion?” Duke said, appropos of nothing. 

Max’s mouth curved down automatically. “He’s good with him… He likes to run, so they play in the back a lot more than me.” 

“Oh,” Duke said, scratching Orion on his side. “He shouldn’t do that. Orion shouldn’t be distracted by someone else, you know? He’s supposed to be monitoring you.” 

“I know that.” 

“I’m just saying,” Duke said. “What if your numbers flexed and Orion was too busy finding the b-a-l-l?” 

Max was going to start in on him but he stopped himself. He reminded himself that CJ wasn’t real, that Orion wasn’t going to let his numbers fall and that Duke was being patently weird. He shrugged it off and tried to think of an easy way to change the subject. 

“Stromer is Captain Canada, huh?” 

He never claimed to be smooth.

“ _World Juniors_ Captain,” Duke said. “I can’t believe they’re playing USA for the Cup. Think they might lose?” 

“Nah. I mean, USA might have the whole no loss thing going, but we’re _Canada_ , you know?” 

From beside them he heard a scream of, “Bullshit! USA is do or die!” 

“Shut up, Chych,” Max said, kicking out ineffectively towards him. “It’s 3 on 1 here, buddy. You are outnumbered.” 

“Laws’ll take my side, right buddy?” 

Lawson nudged at Chych. “Sorry, but I bleed maple syrup, remember?” 

“You are definitely going to want to get that checked out,” Chych smiled at him. 

Max looked on at the two guys with a bit of jealousy. This was him and Duke last year. Hell, it was him and Duke before his stupid injury and stupid Noah. They were annoying and buddy and chirped each other. Now they were sitting on a couch a few feet separated making weird awkward small talk. 

He sipped his water. 

Duke was frowning at his phone in his hands again. Max looked over and _almost_ tilted his head to the point of reading over his shoulder but Duke caught him in the act. 

“Dude, what the fuck?” 

“You look mad,” Max said. “I was just making sure it wasn’t one of the guys for me to check when I finish up with this stupid hand thing.” 

Duke rolled his eyes but there was at least a pull of a smile at the side of his lips. “I don’t need you defending my honor, Domi. You’re like half my size.” 

Max felt himself rile up a little but focused on not taking the bait. Yes, he was short, but he was scrappy damn it. He couldn’t help genetics and it didn’t seem to be hurting his freaking game much. 

“Who is it then?” 

Duke looked down at his phone. “Noah.” 

Max’s stomach churned. He forced his tone to even out before he spoke. “Oh yeah? Disagreeing on where to go to dinner next?” 

Duke looked at Max, then at the two guys who were dead focused on the screen. He leaned over a little and said, through his teeth, “He is not sure hanging with my ex is comforting to him.” 

“YOU TOLD HIM WE DATED?” Max practically bellowed without thinking, pulling back from him. 

Even with the sound of the video game in the background it was painfully quiet in the house all of a sudden. Both Chych and Lawson were looking at them with mouths open. He felt adrenaline pumping into his system, the medicine seeming to recede slightly as the heat ran through his skin. 

Duke said something in French, low and annoyed. “Yes. Much like you just told TWO PLAYERS.” 

“It’s not like we care,” Lawson said, dutifully looking at his controller. “Love is love, right?” 

Chych nodded. “Yeah, more power to you. And like… uh. You dated?” 

His acting skills needed so much work, as as soon as he had said it Duke’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, Chych did you already know?” 

“Uh…”

Max rolled his eyes and wished he hadn’t asked Duke over. “He figured out I was gay. We live together. I told him about you because …” 

And there was nowhere to go with that. He chugged the water like it was a competition. 

“ _Because_?” Duke said. 

“Because I fucking missed you, okay?” Max spat, finally. He looked at Duke and widened his eyes. “We were good, we were buddies. Then you meet this Noah kid and all of a sudden I have to like beg to get you on the phone or talk to you. And I meet him and he seems nice and awesome and I can’t fault you for liking him but I missed you. Alright?” 

Duke opened his mouth but paused before he continued. “But… CJ?”

This was the time where he was supposed to come clean. Where he should just let it out that it was a hair brain scheme that Chych had come up with. But his skin was still too warm and he was annoyed and tired of being annoyed. “Has nothing to do with this at all, I would think. I didn’t give up on our friendship. On… everything.” 

“That’s not fucking fair,” Duke said. “I didn’t give up. You were sick. I have my own life. And you were moving on. You were happy. YOU were the one who wanted to break up.” 

“NO FUCKING WAY, you _broke up_ with me,” Max said. He clearly remembered the conversation from beginning to end. He wished he hadn’t but he really did. 

He noticed, suddenly, the room was a lot quieter for him to yell in and he noticed that the two other guys had snuck out. He REALLY wished he could join them. 

Duke turned in his seat. “I said it was going to be really hard dating from separate houses. I didn’t say I _didn’t want to_.” 

“No, you said it was going to be _impossible_ to go from being around each other all the time to separate houses. You said it would be better if we hadn’t lived together at all.” 

“ _Easier_ ,” Duke corrected. “I said it would’ve been _easier_ if hadn’t lived together. And then you said well we could stay friends.” 

It was like they were having two different conversations about two different lives. None of it made any sense and it was equal parts frustrating and, for no real reason, hilarious. He felt giggles bubble up in his chest, his body giving in to the first flow. 

“You think this is funny?” Duke asked, his face screwed up angrily. 

“No,” Max said, thought he laughed again, he forced himself to swallow a few times. “It isn’t. IT ISN’T. I just… are you fucking kidding me? I thought you broke up with me and you thought I broke up with you and we just what? Stayed friends. Like it wasn’t painful and horrible.” 

Duke’s face didn’t portray any amusement, rather looking like he was going to reach back and punch Max. Which, fair enough. But at least he’d stopped laughing. 

“Now what?” Duke asked, his hands balling up on the couch beside him. 

Max’s face pinched together. The adrenaline was seeping out slowly and things were still at least a little cloudy with the painkiller. “What do you mean now what? You are with Noah, right?” 

“And you’re with CJ.” 

Max bit at his lip and then licked it. “Yeah. CJ. Him.” 

“Fuck,” Duke said, standing up and putting his phone in his pocket. “I have to go.” 

“What?” 

“This isn’t fair to… Anyone.” 

Before he knew what was happening, the front door closed. Max stared at Duke’s wake and blinked slowly. He wasn’t sure what the hell just happened but he was pretty sure that he might have fucked things up worse than he’d even anticipated, which was pretty freaking typical. 

* 

Things went downhill from there, which Max should have anticipated. 

Where Duke had been in the dark, he’d been happy to at least say hi to Max. But when not in the dark, Duke just ignored him fully. He wasn’t sure when it was his life had become like this but whatever. 

For a full week he got nothing at all, then Jordan saw his stupid phone unlocked and commented on the photo of him and not-CJ and it was like Duke got even angrier. It was weird and stupid and the whole thing felt like layers of shit on his shoe. There was no getting it all off. 

He went on ice a few more times, which usually made him happy but instead he was frustrated and tired and annoyed by it. He got to take the stupid guard off his hand once or twice to work on strengthening the muscles but it was a friendly reminder that having your hand braced left it weak as fuck and it put him in a mood. In the past it was Duke’s job to make him feel better but he wouldn’t _look_ at him so that was pointless. 

But then Duke wouldn’t look at him. Or talk to him. 

Chych was doing his best, actually. He’d somehow put himself in the role of big brother even though he was still barely old enough to vote. It was comforting, but it wasn’t the same. 

So maybe he moped. A lot. He was not entirely proudest of it but it didn’t matter. He wanted to just take it back. Go back to the night meeting Noah and put on a better act. Then he wouldn’t have the knowledge in his head that he _didn’t want_ and he wouldn’t have this weird lie of CJ around his neck. 

Even Orion seemed to sense it. He was beyond annoyed with him, as he was used to a moving happy Max, even when he was first home from injury he was more willing to play. Now he was all but curled up on his couch watching movies and ignoring the the world around him. He would get nudged by the pups nose and he would do a breath check and then go back to moping. 

He was aware of his patheticness but he was more or less embracing it. 

*

Two weeks later it looked like he was getting back out on the team sooner rather than later which should be a complete win. His hand was free and he’d done solo practice with therapists where he was working towards getting strength back. He was showing progress, it was a plus and definitely nice. 

It didn’t change the home part of his day. Or the time he saw the guys. 

Which, apparently, was enough for Chychrun and Lawson. They, the two guys he called “the kids” just to piss em off and rile them up, apparently were done with babysitting him. So he was ambushed when he walked into the arena for a practice. Chych was walking behind him, which was weird, usually they walked in talking to each other, but it gave him no indication until he saw Lawson with a clenched jaw. 

“Geez, Laws, who pissed in your Wheaties?” 

“Max,” Lawson put his arms over each other. “Come on.” 

Max tilted his head back. “Lord help me, I’m being bullied by an infant.” 

Chych pushed him forward and the next thing he knew he was in a meeting room with a thoroughly put out looking Duke. Duke, as it stood, didn’t look surprised to see him and if he really thought about it he wouldn’t be shocked either. 

The door slammed behind him and the part of his brain that wasn’t planning the demise of Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse was laughing because yeah. His life was a made for TV movie, a bad one at that. 

“Why are you smiling, you dumb ass, you know they locked us in here, right?” Duke snapped. 

“Yeah, yeah they did. And I’m sure if we wanted to we could climb through the air conditioning and fall in the principal’s office.” 

Duke startled a laugh. “Are you still on the medicine?” 

“Naw, that’s been done for weeks, though I have a few if it gets bad,” he shrugged and took a chair at the large oval table. “It hasn’t in awhile though.” 

He stared at the hand and saw the scar he was going to have for the rest of his life. Not as awesome as some, but he could come up with some pretty awesome reasons if needed to impress people. He looked up to find Duke looking at him. 

“Noah and I cooled off,” Duke said. 

Max involuntarily frowned. “I’m sorry?” 

“CJ doesn’t exist.” 

His hand curled up on the table and he shook his head. “Nope, he doesn’t.” 

“You made up a boyfriend?” 

He sighed and rubbed at his beard. “Well, if we’re going with technicalities Chych and Lawson did. I just kind of went along with it.” 

“Why?” 

He felt his eyes narrow and he was fully glaring at Duke. “Why the fuck do you think that I would do it?” 

“You were jealous.” 

“That you were dating a living French Teacher Ken Doll?” Max scoffed. “Yeah, I might have been a bit jealous.” 

Duke rolled his eyes. “He’s not a Ken Doll.” 

“Yeah, except he speaks your language, literally. He’s tall and handsome. Funny. You couldn’t shut up about him.” 

“I’m single, fucker, why the hell should I not date?” 

“Why did you have to wait for me to get injured before you found a boyfriend?” 

Duke’s jaw clenched. “You know why.” 

“If I knew I wouldn’t ask, ass.” 

“ **You** were my freaking boyfriend,” Duke snapped. “Hard to find a boyfriend when you have someone who is around you twenty four hours a day. I mean, we spent more time together after I moved out! If I tried to talk to someone they just assumed… “ 

Max’s good hand clenched extremely tight. “Why didn’t you tell me I was cock blocking you, Duke? That is not buddies.” 

“Cause I didn’t WANT to be buddies,” Duke yelled loud enough it echoed around the room. “I wanted people to think it. It was the closest to being able to say you were my boyfriend I was going to get, okay?” 

This whole thing was… fucked up. It wasn’t even fucked up. It was just tiring and really immature. He couldn’t believe he got caught up in all of this shit when he’d thought the’d had the first healthy break up of his life. Instead it was the exact opposite. At least with the past relationships he was truthful from beginning to end. Yelling at someone they were terrible or saying you never wanted to see them again was better than slowly breaking their heart over months. 

He exhaled. “Okay.” 

“ _Okay?_ ” 

“We both did somethings that were stupid,” Max said. “I didn’t understand what was going on. I’m sorry if I hurt you. I’m sorry I might have been the reason you and Noah cooled off. He was really a good guy. I assume. I think I was too pissed to be a judge. The others liked him? I don’t…” 

He was breathing weirdly. He had definitely taken too much information in. He looked at Duke. “I’m just really fucking sorry.” 

Duke looked at him like he was crazy, but then paused and nodded. “I’m sorry, too.” 

“Okay,” Max said, smacking his hand on the table and standing up. “We are going to go kick some Sens ass?” 

“WHAT?” came from the other side of the door. He should have known that those dumbasses would listen in. 

Max walked over to the door and raised his voice. “If you don’t let us out of this room in the next minute I will tell Tippet the exact reason you were late for practice two weeks ago, Chych.” 

The door opened almost instantaneously. Chychrun looked a little pale, Laws more curious than ever. He tipped an imaginary hat at the both of them and looked back at Duke. 

“You coming?” 

Duke looked like he’d frozen in place but the question broke it and he stood up with a purpose, nodding and striding across the room. They were out the door and down the hallway, far enough from the guys that it was doubtful they could hear them before Duke spoke. 

“What the hell just happened?” 

Max shrugged. “Hell if I know. I just know I don’t like not being your … friend. So you know. I’m good with this for now. Are you good with this for now?”

Duke side eyed him hard. “Um. I don’t know. Sure. For now?” 

“Good,” Max said. “Now an important question.” 

“Yes?” 

“How are we planning on teaching the rooks to stop getting up in our business?”

Duke made a face. “Uh. Do you remember us with Ollie and Mikkel?” 

“That was different, they were being totally tools…” he tapered off and stopped. “Okay. I see your point. No wonder Oliver freaks out whenever we board Boedker.” 

“Fucker deserves it every single time,” Duke muttered.

Max smiled. “Amen.” 

* 

He gave Chych and Lawson the benefit of the doubt. Granted he _might_ have accidentally hit Chych against the boards a little harder during practice than he should have the next day but it was friendly fire. Lawson kind of fidgeted whenever either he or Duke got near him on the ice, which was golden. 

The truth was, he felt good. Or at very least he felt better than he had for a while. he and Duke were back to talking. Even having Duke come over and make a late night snack with them after the Senators game. It was like riding a bicycle, slipping back into the friendship with Duke. 

But, as things always did, it **had** changed. He was entirely more aware of not only how they were near each other but how they treated each other. Days passed, a week and then another and he was back on the ice for games. Maybe he wasn’t at his best but he was better. He wouldn’t have to look to know where Duke was, and the same with Duke for him. 

On the road they hung out in each other’s rooms non-stop, playing video games, going on stupid adventures when others were just chilling. 

He could only assume that he’d been willfully ignoring it, because Duke had been right. It was a “friends with benefits” situation with the benefit being intimate if not sexual connection. And he felt stupid but thankful. 

Stupid for the quite obvious reasons but thankful because he was actually getting a do over which was not something he would have thought he could get. 

He waited till they were playing the Rangers in New York. They flew in a day early and they got an early night. It was pretty nice. But he wasn’t going to take the chance to chill and go to a bar with the guys. He knew better than that. 

“Yo, _Anthony_ ,” he called across the hotel hallway. “Get dressed. We’re going out.” 

From a few doors down Jordan popped his head out. “I thought you said you didn’t want to go with the guys.” 

“I don’t,” Max piped up helpfully. “I asked Duke, not you.” 

Jordan put a hand to his chest. “You wound me, Domi.” 

“I try not to, your wife is kind of scary.” 

Jordan smiled in that stupid way he got when talking about his wife. “Yeah, she kind of is.” 

“Oh dear lord,” Max muttered. “Duke, you ready?”

Duke came out of his room with simple jeans and a button down, which was pretty perfect. “Yeah, yeah. I took like three minutes, jerk.” 

He smiled beatifically at him. “Worth the wait. Let’s go.” 

“Why aren’t we going with the guys?” Duke asked, but it was more of musing thought than a real question. 

They got on the elevator and Max waited till the doors shut to answer. “Cause I’m taking you on a date and taking Martinook on a date is surprisingly _not_ on my bucket list.” 

Duke’s face went slack for a second and then his eyebrows knit. “A date?” 

“Yeah, if that’s okay with you,” Max said, all the bravado he’d felt a minute before evaporating into thin air. 

Duke nudged at him with his shoulder. “You know I’m okay with the idea.”

Max’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, he smiled. “Yup, totally what I thought.” 

The elevator opened and they were in the lobby, they had to dodge a few players to keep from getting talked into going with them. Not that it would work. He thought he might be imagining it but he could feel the nervous energy when Duke subtly knocked his shoulders against Max. 

It was funny how nervous he was, going on a date with a guy who he’d dated before and who he’d gone to dinners with more times than he could count. But as they went from the warm bright lobby to the cold New York night he could feel his heart beating in his chest. 

“So, this is a thing?” Duke said, his voice sounding weird in the crisp air. 

“Well, according to _some people_ ,” Max said, nudging him. “It never _stopped_ being a thing.” 

Duke smiled, licking his lips. “Some jerks are just really freaking dense I guess.” 

“Not anymore,” he said, pausing so he could look Duke in the eyes when he said it. “Got it?” 

There was a moment when Duke was looking down at the ground that Max felt a little light headed but then he saw Duke’s small smile changed to a huge shit eating grin. 

“Got it,” he said. “Took you long enough, Domi.” 

“Hey, I might be dense but I make up for it by being stubborn.” 

Duke rolled his eyes. “Don’t I know it.” 

Max looked around and then slipped a quick kiss to Duke’s lips. It felt nice and warm, not just because it was probably in the teens weather wise. He pulled back and exhaled a puff of visibly warm air. 

“Okay, now you’re going to take me to that freaking Bao place you’ve talked up for eighteen months.” 

Duke’s eyes widened and pulled him ahead by his hand. “Oh hell yeah.” 

Turns out the simplest answer was to follow him. Probably forever. He was okay with that.

**Author's Note:**

> If there's fools in life, then a happy fool I would rather be.  
> -farther on down the road by taj mahal 
> 
> Thank you so much Lucifern for the beta. <3 I love you hard. <3


End file.
